They Called Me Red

They Called Me Red It wasn t the perfect life but it was their life Devon s and his dad s They were there for each other He wasn t prepared for Lily to come along and enchant his father with her giggles and shy glances

Title: They Called Me Red

Author: Christina Kilbourne

ISBN: 9781897073889

Page: 218

Format: Paperback

It wasn t the perfect life, but it was their life Devon s and his dad s They were there for each other He wasn t prepared for Lily to come along and enchant his father with her giggles and shy glances Devon has a bad feeling about this new woman who seems endearing one minute, ice cold the next, but his dad is hooked, and Lily moves in When Devon s father suddenly falIt wasn t the perfect life, but it was their life Devon s and his dad s They were there for each other He wasn t prepared for Lily to come along and enchant his father with her giggles and shy glances Devon has a bad feeling about this new woman who seems endearing one minute, ice cold the next, but his dad is hooked, and Lily moves in When Devon s father suddenly falls ill, and doctors can t find the problem, Lily insists that they travel to her native Vietnam, where her uncle can treat him Once in her family s tiny apartment, Lily forces Devon away from his father, and makes him drink some musky tea that is supposed to calm him It is only when Devon wakes up in a locked room that he begins to realize his suspicions about Lily weren t nearly as horrific as who she really is, and what she has done Within days, Devon finds himself locked up in a different location, with three other boys Through hushed conversations in broken English and Vietnamese, Devon learns that he is now the property of a restaurant owner named Long, and that he has been transported to Cambodia As the nightmare worsens, the reality that this restaurant doubles as a brothel sets in Because of his fiery red hair and freckles, Long is able to demand a higher price for him, and her customers start a bidding war With the memory of his father and his old life keeping him from complete despair, Devon manages to hope for escape or rescue Back home, those close to Devon refuse to believe Lily s lies about him running away in Vietnam, and an international search effort begins Once found, the challenges continue, as Devon faces a new life without his father, and a new identity molded by unspeakable memories.

One thought on “They Called Me Red”

Engaging, quick read, if too simplistic. Preteen narrator displays somewhat unrealistic maturity of a 20-something, and the book's lack of pretense is in this case a detriment, and it shies away from full engagement with the character's predicament. Still enjoyable though.

13 year-old Devon and his Dad live an idyllic life until his Dad becomes enamoured of Lily, a Vietnamese lady who works with Devon's Dad. Although Devon mistrusts her, his Dad becomes more and more entranced with her, until finally Lily moves in with them and Devon finds his life becoming more and more restricted. Gradually Devon's Dad becomes very ill, and Lily convinces him that the only hope for survival is being treated by her uncle, a traditional doctor in Vietnam. After his Dad dies, Lily [...]

Kilbourne, Christina. 2008. They Called Me Red.It's been about a week since I read They Called Me Red, and I'm still not quite sure what to make of it. It had my attention--I'm not saying it didn't. But it was so unique, so different--in a way--that I'm not quite sure how to sum it up without giving too much away. (I don't know if that will make sense to others or not.) They Called Me Red is the novel of a father and son divided. First divided because of the father's attentions to a woman--a wic [...]

Ok, so I personally didn't love it because I felt like it was too slow, however, this could be because I'm maybe a slow reader out loud so we only got through a chapter or two each reading time. I read this with the 7/8s and some of them said they preferred it over Dear Jo because there was "more dialogue" and "more happened". So, yes, I would say the kids liked it.

While it started off a bit slow to get into, a lot happened in less than 200 pages. I liked that the protagonist was a male since many human trafficking narratives are about females. I think this is a good read for kids in grades 6-8 as a starting place for awareness of human trafficking because it's not super graphic.